Music, Culture & Technology.

May 13, 2010May 29, 2016

5 Moments of Musical Awesomeness at Midnight Special

The Midnight Special was a live music show which premiered in the U.S. as a special on August 19, 1972 and ran as a regular series on February 2, 1973; its last episode was on May 1, 1981. This show captured some pretty amazing live performances at a time when most shows lip synched. Here are a couple of them.

1. Rick James – Mary Jane. The iconic Rick James gives a performance of one his best known songs with one of the most understood double entendres. A classic song that never gets old.

2. Curtis Mayfield – Superfly. One of the coolest songs ever written by a Human.

3. Steely Dan – Reelin’ In The Years. Not only is this a classic song – I think we can all admit we’ve totally rocked out to it while driving a car when it comes on the radio. Plus look for a Bill Cosby that will quite literally blow your mind.

4. Heart – Crazy on You. This version has an extra long acoustic intro which is kind of neat, but the best part of the clip is the guitarist in the Luke Skywalker outfit. Hey, it was the 70s.

5. Al Green – Let’s Stay Together. An amazing song that still sounds great today. Especially if you’re on your third date, and you’ve just opened that second bottle of wine.

BONUS – Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On. I remember reading somewhere that his record company begged him not to release the song. Shows how much they knew.

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Published by Colm Hogan

Colm Hogan is Chief Contributor and Publisher at DG. He's written books (Ice Cold Nights, Crack Whore Pickup), and made films (Matatu Express, The Legend of 23 Hop, Back To The Zone).
His work in historical urban culture preservation has been featured in Vice, Now Magazine and BlogTO along with Denise Benson's Then & Now and Sara Gwendolyn Ross' Law & Intangible Cultural Heritage in the City. View all posts by Colm Hogan

Hey Mark, Thanks for your comment. My guess is that it may not be the current copyright owner of Midnight Special, but rather the record labels’ legal teams representing certain individual artists. In the meantime, I’ve posted some replacement links – we’ll have to see how long they will last. It’s a shame, as posts like these are a great way for people to discover some classic tunes and then go out and buy more material from the artists.

Haha, oops, re. Title. Will fix that; thanks. Re. Copyright owners- you might be correct. I’m not quite sure who currently owns the series. Things get quite complicated as the years go by and media/ record companies are bought and sold and new contracts are drawn up.
UPDATE – There are 5 Clips, with the last clip labeled as a Bonus Clip.

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Digitized Graffiti was founded in 2010 and features the very best of music, culture and technology. DG is a non-commercial site and has to date continued to remain advertisement free. If you have an idea for a story or wish to submit your music, feel free to email me here: colmhogan(AT)gmail(DOT)com.

Colm Hogan is Chief Contributor and Publisher at DG. He's written books (Ice Cold Nights, Crack Whore Pickup), and made films (Matatu Express, The Legend of 23 Hop, Back To The Zone). His work in historical urban culture preservation has been featured in Vice, Now Magazine and BlogTO along with Denise Benson's Then & Now and Sara Gwendolyn Ross' Law & Intangible Cultural Heritage in the City.